Friday, 24 December 2010

So the big day is almost here. I hope you are all ready for the seasonal period of over indulgence that is upon us. That all your presents are wrapped, cards sent, turkeys stuffed and cocktail cabinets stocked :oD

Deadman Junior is bouncing off the wall with excitement waiting for the big man in Red to come down the chimney. Like families the world over we will be leaving Santa a mince pie, a glass of sherry and maybe a carrot for the reindeer. Unlike most other families we will also be leaving Santa a spare pair of spectacles just in case he breaks the pair he is always pictured in while negotiating a rather treacherous bend in our chimney. Deadman Junior thinks this is a very good idea and so does the Deadman, because, after little eyes are shut and sleeping I may just slip a business card on the plate next to the sherry on the off chance that our chimney’s not the only one with a wicked bend.

Thursday, 16 December 2010

Hi all, Santa has arrived early at the Deadman's residence bringing a box of Christmas cheer in the shape of 700 old stock frames from the 1950's. As you can see from the photo's below the Deadman and his little elf helper (Deadman junior - 5 years old and dressed from top to toe in green with curled up shoes and a bell on his hat :oD Don't tell social services or else our idea of chimney sweeping business is scuppered !!) have a lot of work in the New Year preparing these lovely little numbers for you all to wear.

Monday, 6 December 2010

I hope everyone has been staying warm through this cold snap. The only casualty that the Deadman clan has had is that we were unable to make it to the Northern Military Expo where we were supposed to be standing a stall this weekend gone.

Wednesday, 10 November 2010

I don't know about the rest of you but there is nothing I like more than a trip to the theatre (acting not operating! of course). It would seem that the same is true of the Deadman's stock with no less than three theatres and one film production company taking our spex for their productions.

Thursday, 14 October 2010

Autumn has well and truly arrived, but summer didn’t give up without one final (if belated) burst. Hemsby weekend was glorious, warm and sunny and yes I was stuck inside standing a stall throughout. Not that I minded too much, what with Shona and Twan from Heydays to keep me company and a visit from Bunny on Sunday things could have been far worse.

Shona from Heydays

Melanie eyeing up another potential purchase.

Dead Men’s Spex was able to show off some of the new stock that has come in recently before it is uploaded on to the website. I also got to catch up with old friends and exchange gossip about the show scene and what’s new and what had fallen by the wayside.

It was good to see some new traders at Hemsby this year. The Traders are as much of a draw to these weekend shows as the music and dancing in my opinion. Without a vibrant and varied group of dealers the days would be filled with nothing but sleeping and booze (when there should be sleeping, booze and buying :oD )and Frankie would go home with too much money and not be incentivised to work hard to make more money for Melanie to spend at the next weekender! What we would then risk is the collapse of the Western economy and for the sake of one less pair of spex! I rest my case....my spectacle case that is!!

Frankie supporting the whole Western economy!

Now with Halloween being the next date on the calendar there has never been a better time to dust off your cat’s eyes and slip into your catwoman costume to do a little trick or treating.

In my opinion you can keep your Michelle Pfeiffer and your Halle Berry as there is only one catwoman worth her salt and that is Eartha Kitt . Sexy, sassy and living up to her name just a little bit earthy, if the Deadman could choose a model for his cat’s eyes this would have been the lady and don’t get me started on the voice.......

Friday, 24 September 2010

Some of you may have guessed that the plus four teaser could be no-one else but Bunny Hooper “The 1940’s Accountant”. On a weekend when the Deadman was abandoned on the stall by the rest of the clan (something about parties and lashings of ice-cream and jelly or so Deadman Junior assured me) the only backup was my Dad, Deadman senior or as he’s affectionately known “Deadman Walking”. Bunny was a welcome pair of extra hands.

Bunny was in an unusually rumbustious mood probably brought on by his insistence on being called Lord Hooper Marquis of Repps and muttering on about losing the rest of the shooting party and the bloody beaters!

The only way to calm him was to entice him into the stall with a copy of Glimpse and the assurance that he could smoke a pipe full of Virginia shag (picture the caterpillar in Alice through the Looking Glass!). The legitimacy of this action in what should be classed as the work place was debatable but I think the conclusion ran something along the lines of “bugger the EU!!”

With autumn knocking at the door Deadman’s thoughts turn to indoor shows where the elements no longer dictate. We are at Hemsby 45on the 8-10th October, again another local show for us, just a short dash at the North Sea from base camp. There’s nothing quite like the British seaside out of season. All the holiday makers, day trippers, chalet owners and “kiss me quickers” will have departed leaving the bleak desolation of the Norfolk coastline (and about 1000 drunken rockers). Bliss!!

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

A large stock of 1970/80's designer frames have now come into our possesion and are being gradually processed and uploaded onto the site. So if it's "Saturday Night Fever" or 80's giant retro that takes your fancy click here.

I hope to bring you tales of trains,planes and plus fours in my next blog later this week but here's a teaser

Saturday, 4 September 2010

Twinwoods has come and gone in a flurry of activity. It turned out to be a busy show, but not without a little time to enjoy ourselves. Deadman junior was safely seconded with the outlaws leaving myself and Mrs Deadman free to spread the gospel of vintage eyewear, dodge the rain and point at the natives.

It’s our third year trading at this show and we just love the atmosphere and the music. Highlights of this year's show were Kai’s Cats and Peter Doneganson of the late Lonnie Doneganand a star in his own right.It’s the first time he’s performed on the main stage at Twinwoods and in the Deadman’s opinion was the outstanding performance of the show. He also gave me the best overheard quote of the weekend:

One aging audience member to another " that Peter Donegan, he’s not his father!! "

I'm also reliably lead to believe his wife's not his mother and any kids he may have will not be his great aunt Hilda!

As for the great British obsession ….. the weather was mixed to say the least. Saturday and Sunday saw torrential showers that allowed us to trap people on the stall and threaten to throw them out into the deluge with unprotected “victory curls” unless they bought something!

Pre rain "victory curls"

The "threat" of rain

The rising waters also brought with them a visit from sheltering musician and Dead Men’s Spex wearer Pete Cook of the Sentinels of Rhythm, check out his blog for a candid and wry look at the life of a jobbing musician.

Pete Cook "sax god"

So the weekend was good and all was right with the universe. We’d had good music, trapped customers, visits from would be music gods, copious amounts of cheap Hotel Chocolat sold to raise money for the MacMillan trust. Then the weekend went from good to great with the arrival of “The 1940’s Accountant” bringer of coffee and general all round sartorial elegance!!

Bunny Hooper "The 1940's Accountant"

Our next show is in three weeks time at Holt in North Norfolk on the Poppy line, we’d love to trap you in our stall and force feed you chocolate so please come along and visit us. If you're lucky you might also just catch a glimpse of Bunny Hooper in his plus fours!

Friday, 3 September 2010

This week can I ask you to welcome our guest blogger Bunny Hooper "The 1940's Accountant" .

Where’s Deadman?

The morning down pour had quickly led to the abandonment of the first day’s beach expedition. Things were bad. The picnic basket was not even opened before the rain started to fall. And with the man on the wireless promising strong north easterlies and a high chance of further heavy precipitation, I had a problem! It was the last week of the school holidays and I had promised the 1950’s accountants, my offspring, Debit and Credit, a good old fashioned English seaside holiday on the North Norfolk coast.

They had listened to my childhood reminiscences of endless sunny days spent at the beach; sunburn, sandwiches with real sand in them washed down by seawater from failed wave jumping and ever more complex sandcastles as the week progressed, until Friday yielded something that would have won Norman Foster awards. They had listened with wonder and they wanted some of those good times. But the weather was starting to ruin things and I needed a plan to keep them entertained.

To buy myself some thinking time I handed them each a copy of Deadman’s summer special from the last blog. Perhaps it was the lack of a wordsearch, the missing Spangles (note to Deadman – possible improvements for 2011?) or maybe the incredibly short attention span of today’s younger generation, but within ten minutes tempers were starting to fray.

And then, just as the wheels were starting to come off the holiday bus, a problem I don’t remember Cliff Richard facing and he was away for not just seven days but “a week or two”, Deadman’s own words came back to me – another highlight from summer holidays when we were kids was a new pair of NHS 524s – and the answer was obvious. We would contact Deadman and I would source them their very first pair of 524s. Pink for her and blue for him. If I couldn’t give them a beach holiday to remember I could at least provide them a seaside “spectacle”ular that they would not forget.

We were staying local but Deadman’s contact details were on my rolodex. And my rolodex was back in the office, hundreds of miles away. We were just going to have to do this the old fashioned way and seek him out.

But where to look? Easy, thought I, wherever vintage things could be found. To avoid too many questions that I knew I couldn’t answer, I dressed it up for the 1950s accountants as a Norfolk version of Where’s Wally – Where’s Deadman. And with that we had our rain coats, long trousers and sensible footwear on and we were out of the door on an adventure.

With the week running out fast, no confirmed sighting and not even the faintest sniff of the Deadman being close (the give away odour being a mild whiff of pork scratchings, they tell me), we gave up the ghost, or the bespectacled skeleton I should say, and headed back to the seaside for one last try on the beach.

And on that final day, just before we packed up after another washout on the beach everything became clear, both literally and metaphorically. As the sun showed itself for the first time that week I remembered that the next day was the start of the August bank holiday weekend - the Twinwoods weekend. No wonder we couldn’t find Deadman out and about around Norfolk. He had no doubt been at HQ overseeing last minute preparations for the DMS stall at the Glenn Miller Festival.

The children didn’t get their old fashioned week on the beach or their vintage 524s. However, they weren’t too disappointed. We saw some great places and met lots of interesting people. Rain or (unlikely) shine we will be back next summer and many times before then because we love the area.

And if you want to play Where’s Deadman you will have an easier job than I had last week if you head along to the North Norfolk Railway’s Famous Forties event during the weekend of 18 / 19 September. Deadman will be there offering to the public a fine selection of his vintage frames. If you do go I may see you there. You will recognise me from my children, wearing their newly refurbished 524s. Debit in the pink and Credit in the blue.

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Hi, we’ve just arrived back from our Summer Holiday and as is befitting of the Deadman clan we have been weathering (sunning being an inappropriate word for what you do on a British holiday) in the home of Dracula himself; Whitby.

Never have I been to such a place for indulging a passion for fish and chips at every meal (including breakfast) as the North Yorkshire coast. Unbelievably we passed a shop starting its first fry of the day at 9.00am!

Highlight of the week was a ride on the North Yorkshire Railway to Pickering home of the “The Pickering 1940s Wartime Weekend” for all you 1940’s enthusiasts http://www.pickering1940s.co.uk/ . This is a great place along with the upcoming “Sherringham/Holt 1940’s weekend” (September 19th/20th) www.nnrailway.co.uk/page.php?pid=7 to air your tortoiseshell spectacles.

Mike Denmark – TimescapeAt Holt 1940’s show 2009

Before we went away I’d been speaking to Bunny Hooper “The 1940’s Accountant” and he had been bemoaning the demise of the comics’ Summertime Specials. Along with a new pair of NHS “524” glasses this used to be the highlight of the summer holidays when we were kids. Usually sold with a useless plastic toy or a packet of Spangles attached to the front cover it was guaranteed to while away a long holiday car journey. So this got me thinking; and as a special present for Bunny, Dead Men’s Spex has gone to no expenses at all and produced The Dead Men’s Spex Summer Special 2010 (well the cover)..........enjoy!

This week sees me back in the workshop finishing off the preparation of the final frame stock for the bank holiday Glenn Miller Festival that we are attending at Twinwoods http://www.twinwoodevents.com/ . As usual we will have an arena stall selling lots of our lovely period frames. There will be a vast selection of gold filled round eyes to go with your de-mob suits and for the ladies a cornucopia of 1940/50s frames to complete that special outfit.

Finally don’t tell Mrs Dead Man that I’ve got a Gal in Kalamazoo , so I’m going to jump on the Chattanooga Choo Choo all Devil may care and work that old black magic. If she does find out I’m going to hit the little brown jug and I guess I’ll have to dream the rest as I’m stepping out with a memory tonight.

I hope to see some of you at Twinwoods and remember if it’s foggy please don’t fly.

You'll love the "and finally if you can’t decide on what glasses might suit you best take a look Flair Magazines 1963 version of what type to fit which kind of personality!" piece at the end. It had me in tucks !!

Please take time to take a look around her site at some of the best vintage and new design available.

I hope to have Heather as a guest blogger in the not to distant future.

Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Hi, I wanted to address two things in this blog entry, these being the joy of birthdays and vintage sunglass lenses.

Firstly the joy of birthdays, or, when the year turned once more on Mr Deadman and how he re-discovered the delights of the regional museum.

My birthday trip this year was to view the Seahenge exhibition at Kings Lynn Museum. Having read about the initial discovery of Seahenge at Holme-next-the-sea in the spring of 1998 I had followed the controversy of its removal for conservation and its final return to Norfolk with great interest. Now was my chance to see the new exhibition at the very modest Kings Lynn Museum set attractively (not!) next to the town bus station. Can I say at this point what a wonderful addition the Seahenge gallery is, showing the remains and the story of this enigmatic monument off to great and sympathetic effect?

Seahenge in situ on Holme-next-the-sea beach

Seahenge at home in its new gallery

What has this all to do with glasses you might fairly ask? Well the delight of a small museum is that you’re never really sure what you might find lurking amongst the stuffed sturgeon, eel traps and enema kits. Yes all of these were on display in the converted church that makes up the rest of the museum and in their own rights would have made the journey worthwhile, but, imagine my delight to find a fine collection of vintage spectacles on display.

I surreptitiously took some photographs without a flash and the results are reproduced below.

The horse-shoe pair of sunglasses on the right has lenses that fold to the side and are in the design of the optician Richardson and date from the early 19th century. I have a pair in my own collection (see below)

Horse-shoe sunglasses from my collection

Lorgnettes and chatelaine cases

Having talked about the wonder of Seahenge, the surprise of a vintage spectacle display and the delights of small museums, I must say that my day was made by a box of “Red Draught cleansing and general cow drench” which just happened to have what looked like the “Arm and Hammer” toothpaste logo on it!!!!

It makes you think!

The second thing I’d like to address is lenses in vintage sunglasses. It seems important with the extended hot spell we are having and the onset of the summer show season to warn against taking for granted that the lenses in your favourite vintage sunglasses or your recent acquisition come up to the stringent requirements for UV protection that modern lenses offer. I would always suggest that you change the lenses in a vintage sunglass frame if you wish to wear it and replace them with modern lenses that have a full UV400 filter in them. If in doubt ask your optician or myself and wear your vintage sunglasses safely with pride.

Friday, 4 June 2010

Mr and Mrs Deadman and Deadman junior have been out and about making the most of the weather and visiting some of the artists participating in Norfolk open studios http://www.nos10.org.uk/ . I was even successful in encouraging Mrs Deadman to purchase a super burlesque style etching for my upcoming birthday ( 21 again of course !)

It’s not been all play as more frames have arrived from the USA for processing. I also have a small show at Heydon Village Hall in Norfolk on 06/06/2010 with http://www.littlevintageloverfair.co.uk/ . We are outside so hoping that the weather holds.

Sunday, 23 May 2010

Yes I know! I promised more, but seem to be stuck on a monthly cycle with the blog updates.

The past few weeks have been busy as we move into spring proper. I have just been to the Hemsby Rock ’n’ Roll weekender, which turned out to be very busy indeed. As it is a Norfolk show I spent much time travelling backwards and forwards to the workshop fitting sunglasses to vintage frames so that my band of merry customers could wear them on the first really sunny weekend of the year.

It wasn’t all work though, there was plenty of time to catch up with old friends such as Shona at http://www.heydayonline.co.uk/ and get an update on the progress of her new blog http://intheheyday.blogspot.com ( I must take credit, as where we pioneers lead others will follow :oD I’m whispering this as Shona has a wicked right hook! )

Shona auditioning for the role of Doc in Hemsby’s next Christmas panto!

I also met up with Chris, a fellow dispensing optician and got to hear about his latest venture into the world of rocking wedding cars. Take a look at his beautiful 1961 Ford Galaxie 352 cu V8 at http://www.v8events.co.uk/ and if the urge to wed comes upon you give him a call he can even get the reception swinging as DJ Galaxie.

Another highlight of the show was seeing the work of the very talented Su Owen with her wonderful 50’s inspired paper-cuts. Check out her work at www.sugar1970originals.com

I’m happy to report that Dead Men’s Spex have a new tea boy (at least at shows). It’s our very own Bunny Hooper The 1940’s Accountant. We broke him in gently at Hemsby as he is a weekender virgin and being an accountant unused to standing on his feet for long periods of time. His highlight of the weekend was being mistaken not once but twice as the bass playing member of one of the bands, that and a surreptitious bout of double entry book-keeping in the bar!

In a future blog I may call on Bunny to explain the finer details of the accountant’s art and how the 1940’s tax regime can save us all pounds, shillings, and pence in these troubled times

Please note that I’ve even been able to kit him out with a pair of genuine period tortoiseshell spectacles, despite his inordinately large brain filled head.

Also this past month has seen http://www.deadmensspex/ supply spectacles for the stage premier of Jonathon Harvey’s new play Canary at the Liverpool Playhouse. Liverpool born multiple award-winning writer Jonathan Harvey established his reputation with Beautiful Thing, his play-turned film for which he received an Olivier Award nomination and the John Whiting Award. As a screenwriter his credits include Gimme Gimme Gimme, Coronation Street and his recent cult series Beautiful People. With Canary Jonathan returns to the theatre where he wrote his first play.Photos from the play can be seen at http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/Show/Canary/19/Media.aspx, look out for Mary Whitehouse wearing Dead Men’s Spex!

The next Hemsby weekend is October 7th-10th so if you are into the 1950s scene or just wish to see Bunny wielding his abacus come along and we’ll see you there!

Wednesday, 21 April 2010

Hi, sorry it’s been a while since I last updated the blog. What was supposed to be a fortnightly event is slipping towards a monthly. I’m hoping that with the return of Dead Man Junior to school and Mrs Dead Man to work, after the Easter break, to turn over a new leaf and be more disciplined............famous last words.

We have also supplied a pair of vintage sunglasses as a prize in WWII re-enactor magazine’s Pin-up competition. You can read all about this is this month’s issue available at news agents or through http://www.reenactingww2.co.uk/ .

On top of this I have taken delivery of 200 1950’s frames from the USA. They are all original unused opticians’ stock and are currently going through the workshop to make sure they are up to my exacting standards before they upload into the shop http://www.deadmensspex.com/ . A few have already hit the shop on the Ebay site http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Dead-mens-spex . With a further 200 coming in at the end of the month and Hemsby Rock ‘n’ Roll show on the way it looks like my work is cut out for the near future.

Why might you ask do new old stock frames have to go through the workshop? Well, frames are like all goods, if they sit around in boxes and drawers for 40 years or more they become dirty and misshapen. Also some plastics fare better with age than others, staying well coloured and flexible while others fade and become brittle. It is my policy that all frames I sell should be able to accept lenses being put into them. What’s the fun of owning a MG and being unable to drive it? Likewise what’s the point in having a swinging 1950’s cats eye and being unable to wear it? !!

Some of our new stock

Finally, with planes across Britain and Europe grounded due to the volcanic dust drifting down from Iceland, I think I’ve found the perfect flying goggles...

Wednesday, 31 March 2010

So far we have stood a one day vintage clothing fair for our friends at Little Vintage Lover Fair http://www.littlevintageloverfair.co.uk/ in the ancient surrounds of Dragon Hall in Norwich http://www.dragonhall.org/ . It is a building that has been standing for nearly 600 years and I’m happy to report that it survived the weekend even with Angela on bacon butty duty in the kitchens.

Waiting for the decorators!

Waiting for the doors to open.

The second show of the month was a three day event at Pakefield with Hepcats Holidays http://www.hepcatsholiday.com/ . Here we found ourselves washed up amongst friends in the hulk of a holed ocean liner swinging out to the JIVE ACES the DING DONG DADDIOS and the wonderful BERNARD BERKHOUT’S SWING ORCHESTRA.

The HMS Hepcat having hit the ice floating in a huge Dry Martini

Shows have always been a way of getting to meet new customers and friends. The internet is a wonderful tool and shop front, but nothing beats meeting people face to face.

Monday, 8 March 2010

I was surprised yet happy to see that one of my frames has done what I have never had chance or may I say the desire to do, it has become a TV star, all be it a small one!

In these days of celebrity and fast track stardom it should not really be a surprise when television touches your life. I knew I’d supplied some spectacles to a stylist who wanted them for an advert. The brief was “Big, black and nerdy with thick geek lenses” for “a man standing in a shower having invented windscreen-wipers for them”.

To me it was a little too close to home, bringing back painful memories of nights in with too much time on my hands, my lad’s Meccano and too many bottles of Hobgoblin. Less said the better!

What I didn’t know was that they were for a national TV campaign. You can imagine my delight and surprise when they appeared in the new Standard Life adverts that are being shown on Dave http://uktv.co.uk/dave/homepage/sid/5002 as part of their sponsorship of the channel.

As Andy Warhol, another great spectacle wearer claimed in 1968 "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Well maybe Dead Men’s Spex is not yet world famous, but as another famous spectacle wearer (my Dad) said “get your finger out and who knows what you’re capable of.”

About Me

Dead Men's Spex is a place on the Net offering a selection of vintage glasses and retro spectacles from the 1850s to the 1970s - become anything from the Class Nerd to a 1950's Glamour Puss. "One pair is never enough"